


emma nolan vs mistletoe

by SJAandDWfan



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F, did i write this anyway? yes, is it even close to christmas? no, sometimes it just be like that when you have a little idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 19:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19911157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SJAandDWfan/pseuds/SJAandDWfan
Summary: Emma had always had a complicated relationship with mistletoe.Christmas at James Madison always brought mistletoe with it, and it meant that all the couples at school now had an excuse to make out in the hallways – sometimes basically in front of Emma’s own locker. It wasn’t fair. She needed to get to her books.It also wasn’t fair because she would never be able to have that. If the kids at school saw two girls kissing under the mistletoe, things would most likely get ugly. Fast. Not that Emma actually had anyone to kiss under the mistletoe, of course.





	emma nolan vs mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> i... did not plan to write this but sometimes things happen and you know you won't remember an idea come christmas so you just gotta get it out now.

Emma had always had a complicated relationship with mistletoe.

Christmas at James Madison always brought mistletoe with it, and it meant that all the couples at school now had an excuse to make out in the hallways – sometimes basically in front of Emma’s own locker. It wasn’t fair. She needed to get to her books.

It also wasn’t fair because she would never be able to have that. If the kids at school saw two girls kissing under the mistletoe, things would most likely get ugly. Fast. Not that Emma actually _had_ anyone to kiss under the mistletoe, of course. She wanted, and sometimes she wondered if maybe…

And almost like the universe had heard her thoughts, there she was. Alyssa Greene walked by, eyes meeting Emma’s for the briefest moment. Emma thought she saw a tiny smile grace her lips, but it was gone as she was confronted by two of their classmates loudly making out in front of her. She pulled a face and hurried past.

Emma scoffed as she looked at them. Honestly, straight people had no shame.

Nobody on the outside would ever know it, but she and Alyssa were friends. Nobody really _could_ know, because once they’d found out Emma was a lesbian, any girl she was seen so much as talking to after class became another target for their bullying. Besides, Alyssa’s mother had apparently made it very clear that Alyssa was not to speak to Emma, lest she be led astray – which was about the most ridiculous thing Emma had ever heard.

Emma hadn’t had many friends in her lifetime, especially not recently, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more to her friendship with Alyssa. Maybe it was just because Emma had a crush on her, and had done ever since Alyssa had somehow managed to blow up some peanut brittle in one of their Chemistry classes.

Or maybe she wasn’t crazy, and Alyssa liked her too.

She was eating her lunch in the band closet, like she always did, when there was a rhythmic knock at the door. Smiling to herself, Emma stood up from the upturned crate she’d been using as a seat and unlocked the door to let Alyssa in. Alyssa slipped into the room, closing the door behind her and leaning against it with a grin on her face.

“Do you have the contraband?” she asked.

“Of course,” Emma said, digging around in her messenger bag until she found the chocolate.

Presenting it to Alyssa, she bit her lip to stop herself from smiling too wide at her excited squeal. Alyssa flung her arms around Emma’s neck, and all the breath was knocked out of Emma’s lungs as the smell of Alyssa’s perfume hit her. It wasn’t her fault that Alyssa always smelled really nice, and gave the best hugs, and was just too pretty for Emma _not_ to be a complete mess around her.

“You’re incredible,” Alyssa whispered in her ear, pulling back with her arms still around Emma’s shoulders to grin at her.

Emma blushed. “It’s just chocolate. It cost me like, two dollars.”

“It’s not about that,” Alyssa said, finally releasing Emma and taking the block from her hands. “It’s about you letting me rebel against my mother’s insane diet. It’s you showing that you care enough about what I want.”

“I always care about what you want,” Emma mumbled, looking at the floor.

“Which is one of the many reasons why you’re incredible,” Alyssa said.

Emma chanced a glance upwards to see a soft smile on Alyssa’s face. It was all a little too much, so Emma cleared her throat and gestured to the crate she’d not long ago been sitting on. Alyssa perched on the second crate nearby, stashing the chocolate in her backpack and bringing out her own lunch.

They ate in comfortable silence for a while, until Alyssa had finished her meagre lunch, packed by her mother, and had started nibbling on the chocolate.

“So,” she started. “How dumb is this whole mistletoe thing?”

“So dumb,” Emma said. “I’ve seen so many things… straight people, I tell you. Uh, no offense.”

Alyssa’s eyes widened. “Oh, it’s—um, none taken.”

Emma winced. She hadn’t meant to be so blunt and insensitive, but sometimes she almost forgot that Alyssa was straight – or, at least, that she hadn’t said anything about not being straight. And Emma really didn’t want to get her hopes up, even if there were times where Alyssa had definitely been staring at her mouth. She had, right? Emma couldn’t have been imagining those times.

“Uh, but yeah, I’ve seen some stuff I definitely didn’t want to see, too,” Alyssa continued, only a little awkwardly. “Kaylee and Nick put on _quite_ the display yesterday. It was horrific.”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “Oh, God.”

“Yeah,” Alyssa laughed at her expression. “It was exactly as bad as you’re thinking. Shelby and I were stood there for ages, but then we just got bored of waiting for her and left. Kaylee wasn’t too happy about that.”

“But she was the one who— never mind,” Emma said. There wasn’t a lot of point trying to make sense of some of the things Kaylee did. She should know; she and Kaylee had actually hung out quite a bit in middle school. That had changed as soon as Kaylee had made the cheer squad a couple years ago, though, and now that everyone knew that Emma was a lesbian, her former friend couldn’t even look at her without curling her lip in disgust.

“I wish that I could hang out with you properly,” Alyssa said wistfully. “And nobody would care. I wouldn’t have to worry about word getting back to my mother and bars being put on my window as she tried to ban me from ever seeing you again, even though we literally go to the same school.”

“She just thinks I’ll corrupt you,” Emma shrugs. “That’s all.”

“And you have,” Alyssa said, holding up the block of chocolate.

Emma laughed uncomfortably, because that wasn’t exactly the kind of corruption she knew Mrs Greene was most afraid of. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Anyway, this school is stupid for more than one reason,” Alyssa concluded. “The mistletoe is only for the popular kids, and the popular kids are all pretty terrible people.”

“I think you’re the only not-terrible popular person here,” Emma said. “Except maybe Kevin.”

“Yeah, but the mistletoe isn’t for me,” Alyssa said, glancing down at her hands.

“Really?” Emma asked, her throat going dry at the prospect of asking her next question. “There’s nobody that Alyssa Greene wants to kiss under the mistletoe?”

She heard Alyssa’s breath catch in her throat, and she almost couldn’t believe she’d had the guts to ask that question. What if there was an answer that she didn’t want to hear, given the size of her crush on Alyssa?

“Sorry,” Emma said, before Alyssa had a chance to speak. “You don’t have to answer that. Forget I asked.”

“It’s okay,” Alyssa said quietly. “I guess, maybe, but I don’t think it would happen.”

“Oh,” Emma said. “Well, there’s more to life than mistletoe.”

Alyssa grinned lopsidedly at her. “There is. But I think that maybe sometimes a cliché is nice.”

“You’re a romantic, then?” Emma asked.

“At heart,” Alyssa said with a shrug.

They went back to finishing their lunch in silence, Emma mulling over Alyssa’s words. Sure, she wanted to kiss Alyssa under the mistletoe, but that was nothing more than a dream. Because even if, by some miracle, Alyssa wanted to kiss her back, they still couldn’t exactly do that out in the halls where they were bound to be seen.

Resigning herself to the fact that it was never going to happen, Emma changed the conversation to the – much safer – topic of homework.

A few days passed, and Emma could almost taste the relief that came with the end of the semester.

She wouldn’t have to step foot in this school until the New Year, which she could hardly wait for, and she’d be able to spend more time baking cookies with her grandma. It would be the first Christmas since Emma’s parents had unceremoniously kicked her out of their house, and Emma was determined that these holidays would be better than they’d ever been. She didn’t need them, she had her grandma. And her grandma loved her for who she was.

On the last day before winter break, Emma got to the band closet a little late. She’d been talking to Mr Hawkins, the principal, about her progress in class. But Mr Hawkins had also asked about how Emma had been feeling at school, clearly doing his best to look out for her despite all the bullying he knew had to be happening. Emma didn’t blame him for not being able to put a stop to it – he was one person against hundreds of others, and he had a school to run, too. He did the best he could, but the kids weren’t dumb enough to bully Emma right in front of him.

Lost in her thoughts, Emma didn’t realize that she didn’t have her key on her until she’d already opened the door to the band closet. Confused, she wondered both where her key had gone, and why the door had been unlocked in the first place. Her brain was taking an annoyingly long time to clear; so long, in fact, that she barely registered that she wasn’t alone in there.

“Hey,” Alyssa said softly, making Emma jump a little. “Sorry, I know this is a weird reversal.”

She held out her palm, on which rested the key. Mystery solved. But why had Alyssa taken the key in the first place? Surely she couldn’t have known that Emma would be late to lunch on this one specific day.

“It’s okay,” Emma said, taking the key back and putting it in her pocket. “I’m just glad I didn’t lose it, after all.”

“I had to, um, do something and I wanted the room,” Alyssa said, shifting her weight nervously. “Nothing bad, of course! Or, at least I hope you don’t think it’s bad, um…”

Emma’s forehead creased in confusion. Alyssa looked terrified, and Emma had no idea why. She took her bag off over her head and smiled reassuringly at Alyssa, making to move past her to her usual crate.

“Wait,” Alyssa said suddenly, and Emma froze.

“What is it?”

Alyssa wrung her hands, taking a deep breath before she crossed the distance between them and stood right in front of her. Emma swallowed, because Alyssa was standing closer than she’d ever stood to Emma before, and her eyes were bright and wide and darting between Emma’s own cautiously.

“Look up,” Alyssa whispered.

Confused beyond belief, Emma did as she was told, glancing up above their heads. Her stomach dropped at what she saw hanging above them.

Mistletoe.

Emma looked at Alyssa again. “Is this… is this a joke?”

“No,” Alyssa looked crestfallen. “I promise it’s not a joke. Unless you’re completely freaked out right now and I've interpreted everything all wrong, in which case it’s just a joke and we can just pretend I didn’t ruin our friendship by stealing some mistletoe from the hallway and putting it up in here.”

“But… why?” Emma asked dumbly, her brain having ceased reasonable function as soon as Alyssa had stepped into her personal space.

“Because—” Alyssa bit her lip nervously, and Emma’s eyes followed the movement. “Because, Emma Nolan, I want to kiss you under the mistletoe.”

Her eyes were genuine, and Emma let out a slow breath as it all started to sink in. “You—me—mistletoe?”

“Yeah,” Alyssa said. “If you don’t… if you don’t feel the same, that’s okay. I just thought… sometimes a cliché is nice, remember?”

“I like you,” Emma blurted out suddenly. “A lot.”

Alyssa blinked rapidly. “You do?”

“Yeah,” Emma said with a nod. “I just thought you should know that because if this is just a fun thing to you then—”

Alyssa leaned in and kissed her.

It was gentle, and sweet, and everything Emma could ever want her first kiss to be. She clenched her hands into fists at her sides, not knowing what to do with them, and just tried to focus on how soft Alyssa’s lips felt against her own, and how fast her heart was racing in her chest. Alyssa Greene was kissing her and, clearly, wasn't so straight after all.

The kiss lingered for a few moments, and then Alyssa was pulling back with a nervous expression on her face. Emma stood, in a bit of a daze, not quite believing what had just happened.

“Was that…” Alyssa trailed off. “Was that okay?”

Instead of answering, Emma – feeling a sudden surge of courage – reached out and cupped Alyssa’s cheeks, pulling her into another kiss. Alyssa smiled against her lips, stepping closer still and wrapping her arms around Emma’s waist. She kissed Emma back firmer this time, and it felt like Emma’s insides were on fire, and Alyssa was the one responsible for both setting the fire and for dousing it to keep her alive. Emma knew in that moment that kissing Alyssa had become her new favorite thing in the entire world.

Alyssa broke the kiss just enough to murmur, “I like you, too, in case that wasn’t clear.”

She kissed Emma again, her lips parting and sending sparks through Emma’s entire body as she sucked ever so slightly on Emma’s bottom lip. Emma wondered if she was dreaming, but no. This was real; it was the most real thing she had felt in her entire life. She didn’t know how long they were kissing under that stupid, _wonderful_ mistletoe for, but one thing was for certain.

Emma would never complain about it again for as long as she lived.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!


End file.
